Over the last several months, I’ve written about the Performance Culture system we recommend to our clients at Cornerstone Business Advisors to help them increase business value, profitability and workplace satisfaction. Through experience, we’ve learned that by managing both behaviors and performance, a company can create a performance culture that consistently delivers results on all three of these.
One of the first steps we recommend is evaluate your employees, which many business owners find difficult to do. Here are a few things to think about as you get started:
- Employees who regularly meet and exceed expectations and demonstrate behaviors consistent with core values are your star team members.
- Employees who show the right values, but are lacking in performance, are team members with potential. If your Potentials have the necessary acumen, you should be able to coach them to become stars with more experience and developmental training.
- Employees who are meeting performance expectations, but lack core values, are your mavericks. It will be more difficult to coach your Mavericks to become Stars than to coach your Potentials to become Stars as behaviors are engrained in an employee’s personality.
- Employees who are failing to meet performance expectations and lack core values are not a good fit for your organization; they are called Anchors because they weigh your company down and keep you stuck in the same place.
You should spend 80 percent to 90 percent of your management time on your star employees. Identifying your star players will help you create a profile to evaluate potential new hires. Star players should not only be identified for leadership positions, but also be asked to mentor their peers.
Rules to Remember
- Managers often hire for experience, knowledge and connections, and usually fire because of behaviors. Behaviors should be a key part of your interview evaluation process.
- Managers often hire quickly, but fire slowly. Recruiting should be treated like sales; always prospect for good employees. Don’t wait to the last minute to recruit new employees.
- While it is difficult to terminate someone, your culture and productivity will improve after firing an employee who does not display your core values. In most cases, you will ask yourself, “Why didn’t I do that sooner?”
Once 2 x 2s are created for each position, managers should explain to each team member how performance and behaviors will be evaluated. Managers are also encouraged to use the 2 x 2s as part of the evaluation process when interviewing potential new hires.
It’s important to also include a job description in your 2 x 2 Employee Evaluation Matrix. The job description should include responsibilities, reporting relationships and compensation (if a formula is used to calculate bonuses and/or commissions).
Cornerstone Business Advisors provides access to experts in business strategy, management, process and finance. The Cornerstone team includes former C-Level executives, successful entrepreneurs and advisors who offer unmatched experience in delivering advanced, custom-tailored, results-oriented solutions for business leaders. Cornerstone has worked with hundreds of companies that range from fast-growth start-ups to Fortune 500 corporations. It developed the Performance Culture System™ to help clients implement best practices and drive high performance throughout their organization. For more information, visit www.launchgrowexit.com, call 910-681-1420, or email [email protected].
